Our prayers expose our god (or, why only praying for our troops makes of god an idol)

Every Veterans Day (and this one in particular) I think of and pray for the complex and difficult circumstance of soldiers. My father served in Korea and always flew the flag on Veterans Day as I grew up. My dad then spent his life working for the USDA and had a high view of what it is to serve one's country.   So I, too, got some of that sense, and felt it acutely this Veterans Day as we all tried to cope with the terrible news from Fr. Hood.  Now in the aftermath, with lots of consternation about Major Hasan and the role that his Muslim faith might have played in his actions, we come face to face to the other side of my sensibilities.  

It is simply a fact of my coming of age in the post-Vietnam era that I look with some skepticism upon our government's motives and means. The horrific treatment of detainees in the unending 'war on terror' including turning ourselves into knots to justify torturing specific detainees is only the most recent example of what produces such skepticism.  And as I have grown into adult Christian faith I have edged very near to pacifism because I actually believe that Jesus is our 'clearest window' into God, and he taught us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, not to kill them.  Listen, I know all the arguments about just war, and I am finally not a pacifist because I think there is an important element of the love of neighbor that requires that I defend them from unjust harm, a call to love that may in extreme circumstances even mean that I must use force to do so. That does not mean it is morally good to harm another person.  Ever.  But my deep conviction about the reality and effects of sin--of utter selfishness and the will to power--in human life give me a Niebuhrian streak that holds at bay my tendencies to follow John Howard Yoder.  

Yet, it makes me angry to hear how often, even at our chapel at Luther, our prayers are offered for our troops and nary a word is spoken about those enemies we are called to love and  pray for.  I've written about this before, even this semester, and I don't think it is simply a problem at Luther but a problem with the 'established' church.  The long shadow of intertwining god and nation, faith and civilization, Christ and Constantine, has led us here.  Our prayers disclose our idolatry, our supplication at the feet of the god of nation, of war and of defense (see the cartoon by Pr. Dan Erlander describing our national obsession with worshipping the god of war).   That we so readily participate in upholding uncritically a nation so poised to act with force and violence, and to use our resources including so many lives, in the service of such violence, makes Veterans Day a day of prayer and lament for me.  It makes it easier when I set side by side Veteran's Day and the feast of St. Martin (also November 11, and the reason Martin Luther, born November 10, was named Martin--he was brought to the church for baptism the next day and was named after St. Martin of Tours).  Martin was a Roman soldier who after a vision of Christ in rags, first cut his warm cape in half to share with the beggar Christ, and then cut his ties to the army in order to follow Christ. As the story goes, 

"Just before a battle with the Gauls at Worms in 336, Martin determined that his faith prohibited him from fighting, saying, "I am a soldier of Christ. I cannot fight." He was charged with cowardice and jailed, but in response to the charge, he volunteered to go unarmed to the front of the troops. His superiors planned to take him up on the offer, but before they could, the invaders sued for peace, the battle never occurred, and Martin was released from military service."

Martin is, mercifully, the patron saint of soldiers, which ought to say something about how Christians should regard military service: a witness for peace and nonviolence trump the call to arms.  Or at least it ought to teach us to say, we are soldiers of Christ. "We love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us."  For they'll know we are Christians by our love.

Anon, and +peace,

Chris 

Comments

[Andy N.]

I read this just before I wrote my prayers for Sunday, and ended up praying for Nadal Hassan by name. An air force veteran sought me out after the service and thanked me specifically for the prayer. So I pass his thanks on to you for the reflection and the reminder.

[Albert Scharen]

We heard a staged reading of excerpts from Studs Terkel's, "The Good War" on Nov 11. It brought back many memories of the 1940's.
But, more signficant in light of your piece, was the image and story of The Chancellor of Germany and The President of France together in Paris observing Armistice Day, the end of World War One.
Some people have learned, but, sadly, others have not.

[victoria A Scharen]

one of your very best blogs Chris...you are right on the nail with this...good to make a few people uncomfortable once in awhile...but war as we know it is going out of favor I believe...Victoria A Scharen